Running and Passing.

Here are some of our thoughts on the Thirty Days of Smiles project.

• Time flew by, but viewing/making a per day video makes it appear much longer.
• Smiling became significantly easier as we progressed.
• When I look back at my videos I can’t help by smile!
• I either fixed by gaze upon a distant object/thought or looked directly into the camera.
• I enjoyed going off into my own head during the videos, thus organizing thoughts or allowing myself to unconsciously compute daily/weekly happenings.
• I think it’s cool to look back at all the past month and realize it was just a day by day process that I was able to smile through.
• Early on I realized I wanted to remain relatively still throughout the video. I really like the idea that the smile and time are the only active elements.
• I realized I can make a better effort to more fully display my emotions. I’m not sure if I always smile as much or as energetically as I should.
• I like my version of a smile.
• If anything, making videos presents a nice dose of reality and self awareness.
• You make smiling look like the easiest thing in the world.
• It was a lot harder to smile than I expected.
• I didn’t really focus on anything.  I’m sure a lot of my time was spent thinking about how it looked like I was barely smiling (and making myself try to smile “bigger”).
• I realized I spend the majority of my time at home in two places.
• I had no idea what I looked like when I work, I kind of like it.
• It hasn’t changed how I look at my own smile.  If anything, I like it even less.
• Watching myself for so long led to more negative than positive thoughts.  Yesterday all I could think about is how my one eyelid is bigger than the other (eczema makes it puffy and weird).
• Five minutes didn’t seem so long after a while.
• Doing this when I was sick was rough.  Took so much willpower.
• Overall I’m proud of myself for posting so much recorded time of myself online.  Not that anyone is necessarily looking at it, but the possibility is there.  I don’t put up 99% of pictures of myself because I think I look gross.
• I think my smiles are best with animals around.

You can view the videos at thirtydaysofsmiles.tumblr.com (recommended order) or in the Thirty Days of Smiles Vimeo Group.